10 Modern CLI Tools for a Better Developer Workflow

As development work gets more complex, the terminal remains an important part of building, managing, and testing applications. A well-designed terminal workflow can make development more efficient and easier to manage.

Even with powerful IDEs and graphical tools available, many developers still prefer the command line for its flexibility and control. The right tools can extend your existing commands and help you build a workflow that fits the way you work. Here are some CLI tools that can make your development more capable and efficient.

1. psmux 🪟

If you like tmux but spend most of your time on Windows, psmux brings a similar terminal multiplexing experience to Windows Terminal. It's a native, high-performance alternative designed specifically for Windows.

psmux

psmux

Like tmux, psmux lets you split your terminal into multiple panes, create sessions, and switch between shells without opening separate windows. It also supports psmux, pmux, and [tmux](https://github.com/tmux/tmux) commands, making the experience more familiar.

GitHub - psmux/psmux: Tmux on Windows Powershell - tmux for PowerShell, Windows Terminal, cmd.exe… Tmux on Windows Powershell - tmux for PowerShell, Windows Terminal, cmd.exe. Includes psmux, pmux, and tmux commands…

2. rustnet 🌐

Rustnet is a terminal network monitor that gives you a real-time view of network activity on your system. It's a modern alternative to tools like netstatmaking active connections much easier to understand.

You can see active connections, listening ports, remote addresses, protocols, and network activity directly from the terminal. The interactive interface makes it easy to spot which applications are communicating with the network without digging through long command outputs.

GitHub - domcyrus/rustnet: Per-process network monitoring for your terminal with deep packet… Per-process network monitoring for your terminal with deep packet inspection. Cross-platform, sandboxed. …

3. ast-grep 🔍

ast-grep is a code search and rewriting tool that searches code based on its syntax and structure rather than text matching. ast-grep is similar to grep, but instead of matching text, it matches code patterns.

ast-grep -p 'console.$METHOD($$$)' src/

ast-grep -p 'console.$METHOD($$$)' src/

You can search for patterns across different programming languages while ignoring differences in formatting and variable names. It can also rewrite the code it finds, making it useful for large refactoring tasks where manually changing hundreds of files would take a long time.

GitHub - ast-grep/ast-grep: ⚡A CLI tool for code structural search, lint and rewriting. Written in… ⚡A CLI tool for code structural search, lint and rewriting. Written in Rust - ast-grep/ast-grep

4. hunk 🧩

Hunk is a tool that helps you review and edit Git diffs interactively. Rather than accepting every change at once, you can go through individual hunks and decide exactly what should be included.

hunk diff

hunk diff

You can review each change, split hunks, stage specific parts, and make small edits directly from your terminal. With hunks, you have much more control than running git add .especially when a file contains both useful changes and unrelated edits.

GitHub - modem-dev/hunk: Review-first terminal diff viewer for agentic coders Review-first terminal diff viewer for agentic coders - modem-dev/hunk

5. ccstatusline 📊

ccstatusline is a customizable statusline for Claude Code that keeps useful session information visible in your terminal. You can quickly view things like usage and session details while your agent is running.

You can customize the statusline to show information such as model details, token usage, context window, and other session data. It works directly with Claude Code, so the information stays visible without interrupting your workflow.

**GitHub - sirmalloc/ccstatusline: 🚀 Beautiful highly customizable statusline for Claude Code CLI… **

• Beautiful highly customizable statusline for Claude Code CLI with powerline support, themes, and more. …gi*

6. Atomic Agent ⚛️

Atomic Agent is an AI agent designed to run locally on your machine while supporting both local and cloud models. More than just generating code, it can browse the web, edit files, run approved shell commands, and retain context across sessions.

You get an interactive terminal interface that lets the agent work with your files, browser, Git repositories, documents, and other tools. It's useful if you want to run small quantized models on your own hardware while still giving access to tools like the shell, filesystem, browser, and MCP.

GitHub - AtomicBot-ai/atomic-agent: Local First Ai Agent. Optimized for Local Ai models. Long… Local First Ai Agent. Optimized for Local Ai models. Long context window. Proper tools callings. Runs privately on your…

7. AutoCLI 🌐

AutoCLI is a CLI tool for fetching information from websites without opening a browser or writing custom scrapers. It works with a wide range of sites, including Reddit, YouTube, Hacker News, and more. You can also control desktop apps and connect tools such as GitHub CLI, Docker, and kubectl.

autocli hackernews top --limit 12

autocli hackernews top --limit 12

You can get structured results directly in the terminal in formats such as tables, JSON, YAML, CSV, and Markdown. It can also reuse authenticated browser sessions, use AI to discover website APIs, and automatically create adapters.

GitHub - nashsu/AutoCLI: AutoCLI is a Blazing fast, memory-safe command-line tool - Fetch… AutoCLI is a Blazing fast, memory-safe command-line tool - Fetch information from any website with a single command…

8. Agent browser 🌐

Agent-browser is a CLI tool that helps your agents interact with websites directly from the terminal. Rather than controlling a web browser, agents can open pages, inspect elements, fill forms, and extract information using simple commands.

It uses accessibility snapshots to provide a clearer view of a webpage, helping agents to find and interact with the right elements. You can use it to automate repetitive web workflows, website testing, or give coding agents a way to interact with web apps directly from your terminal.

GitHub - vercel-labs/agent-browser: Browser automation CLI for AI agents Browser automation CLI for AI agents. Contribute to vercel-labs/agent-browser development by creating an account on…

9. Glow ✨

Glow is a Markdown reader that you can use to read .md files directly from the terminal. It formats headings, code blocks, lists, and links nicely, making it much easier to read documentation without opening a browser or editor.

glow github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser

glow github.com/vercel-labs/agent-browser

You can browse Markdown files interactively, search through documents, and even read content from a local file. Glow is a very handy tool when you are already in the terminal and want to quickly read a Markdown file without switching to another application.

GitHub - charmbracelet/glow: Render markdown on the CLI, with pizzazz! 💅🏻 R nder markdown on the CLI, with pizzazz! 💅🏻. Contribute to charmbracelet/glow development by creating an account on…gith

10. Hyperfine ⚡

Hyperfine is a benchmarking tool that helps you measure how long commands take to run. Rather than running the same command manually with timeit runs the command multiple times and provides more accurate timing results.

You can use hyperfine when you're optimizing scripts, build commands, or CLI tools where small performance differences matter. It gives you a quick way to benchmark changes rather than relying on a single execution time.

GitHub - sharkdp/hyperfine: A command-line benchmarking tool A command-line benchmarking tool. Contribute to sharkdp/hyperfine development by creating an account on GitHub.

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